“This Has Never Happened in History”: How EECC is Saving Lives in Katavi Region, Tanzania
Across Tanzania, a transformation is happening in hospitals and health centres. Through the Essential Emergency and Critical Care in Tanzania (EECCiT) programme, lifesaving care is reaching patients faster and more effectively than ever before.
EECC focuses on simple, practical interventions such as monitoring vital signs, providing oxygen therapy, administering intravenous fluids, managing airways, and training health workers to recognise and respond to critical illness quickly. These are low cost interventions, but when delivered reliably, they save lives.
Since the launch of the EECCiT programme in 2023, the Government of Tanzania, working with UNICEF and Muhimbili University, and with funding from Global Affairs Canada through the CanGive initiative, has been rolling out EECC across 79 hospitals in five mainland regions and Zanzibar. The aim: to strengthen health systems, embed early recognition and treatment of critical illness, and reduce preventable deaths.
From Strategy to Action
EECCiT is more than a set of guidelines. It is a national strategy for transforming emergency and critical care. It includes:
Intensive training of frontline clinicians and health system leaders
Job aids to support EECC provision
Integration of EECC into routine information sharing and health information systems
Building a sustainable network of local trainers and champions to drive long term change
Implementation research and health economics analysis to guide national scale up
An example of this work can be found in Katavi, one of the six included regions. There, the Regional Medical Officer, Dr Jonathan Ezekiel Budenu, has been at the forefront of implementation.
“EECC is Life-Saving”
Dr Budenu shared how EECCiT has transformed care in his region:
“ [EECCiT] has shown improvements to care, behavioural change among the healthcare providers, and… it has shown great improvements in the provision of health services and has cut down unnecessary deaths at district hospitals and health centres.”
Before EECCiT, health workers had access to basic equipment but lacked the skills or confidence to use it effectively. EECCiT changed that.
“Everybody now understands how to use the [equipment] and how important it is to save the life of the patient.”
Scaling Up Across the Region
For Dr Budenu, EECC isn’t just effective, it’s practical and affordable.
“EECC is not that difficult. Ninety-four percent of the equipment is already available at the facility level. You don’t need a million [pieces] of equipment. Simple things such as oxygen concentrators and pulse oximeters can save lives.”
With trained tutors in place, Katavi is now preparing to scale EECC to all five councils in the region by the next financial year. This model of multifaceted implementation, using existing resources, and focusing on simple, high impact interventions is at the heart of the EECCiT strategy nationwide.
Dr Jonathan Ezekiel Budenu discussing EECC
Maternal Deaths Fall Dramatically
The results are already tangible.
“There has been a significant reduction in maternal deaths since the EECC implementation began in June,” Dr Budenu said. “There has been a marked decrease in the need for referrals, and we have only had one maternal death in the district hospital and none in the whole of a district council – this has never happened in history!”
In Tanzania, maternal and newborn deaths have long been a major challenge. But by ensuring essential emergency and critical care reaches patients early, EECC is helping health workers intervene before complications become fatal.
A National Movement to Save Lives
What’s happening in Katavi mirrors progress in other regions. Together, these regions are proving that with political will, good training, and simple tools, it’s possible to strengthen emergency care and save thousands of lives without having to increase budgets.
Dr Budenu’s message to other regions and countries is clear:
“Scale up is very easy. It’s just a matter of understanding and taking it positively.”
Tanzania’s EECC journey is just beginning, but already, lives are being saved, and a model is emerging for the world to follow.
